Fundraising effort underway to get St. John's man's parents and friends to N.L. from Ukraine

Valentine Tymokhinleft Ukraine for Newfoundland and Labrador 17 years ago, and now he's helping his parents and two friends do the same.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine pushes on, Tymokhin's parentsLarisa and Fedorwho are both in their 60s have been forced to seek refuge from the war.Russian forces invaded their hometown of Bilhorod-Dnistrovs'kyion March 1.

The fighting continued to rage Saturday, the war's 17th day, as Russian forces attacked the port city of Mariupol and continued to fighton the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv.

With the help of friends, Tymokhin is raising money to get his parents and friendsto the province. He said things have been difficult since the invasion began.

"I'm lucky to be here," said Tymokhin, who hasn't returned to his home country since leaving nearly two decades ago.

"I was always on the phone,could barely sleep, always talking to my mom, always trying to take care of this or that, give them direction."

Tymokhin, who isa Canadian citizen living and working in St. John's,saidsirens haveechoed throughout his hometown every few hours, forcing his parents to seek shelter in basements and wait out the uncertainty.

Moving on from Ukraine

Tymokhin'sparents have evacuated their homebut have never travelled before.Along with their two close friends, they crossed the border into Romania after securing a ride. On Friday morning, the group arrived at a hotel, safe from the violence playing out on what once was their doorstep. They'll stay at the hotel for a week.

"It's just not easy. Whatever you have in your life, you just have to leave behind and just go,"Tymokhinsaid. "At the same time, you don't really have a choice."

The next step is to head to Bucharest, where they can submit the necessary information for Canadian visitor's visas, but it's uncertain how long the process will take.

Tymokhin's close friend in St. John's, Jess Puddister, is helping with the logisticsbut says it hasn't been an easy task.

"We sat down with my laptop and we just started going through the government website and trying to navigate,"Puddister said.

"A lot of the links were leading to places that had inaccurate information. It was really challenging."

Finding a place for the group to stay had also proven to be problematic. Puddister said the situation is chaoticbut they ultimately decided a hotel will work for the time being.

Fundraising for travel

The GoFundMe campaign, set up by Puddister, is to cover the group's expenses and their journey to Canada. The campaign, with a goal of $8,500,had raised $4,570 as of Friday afternoon.

"They're seniors on a fixed income. They don't have a lot of money," Puddister said, adding banking systems in Ukraine are shut down, making savings accounts inaccessible.

"It's just complete uncertainty, and we just felt it was really important to try and do what we could to help them."

She said it could take as long as three weeks before the visa applications are approved, at which point a flight to Canadais the final step.

Tymokhinsaid his parents don't know English and need his support, so St. John's is the logical step.

"Otherwise they would be lost," he said.

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